A financial expert and mother explains the simple way she uses the grocery store to teach her young son about money

Financial expert Farnoosh Torabi is teaching her young son the concept of delayed gratification.
Angela Weiss/Getty
It's never too early to start teaching your kids about money. You don't have to sit them down for a mutually dreaded lecture, but by practicing smart financial practices in your daily life, you're showing your kids how to handle their money later on.

Farnoosh Torabi, a financial expert, author, and host of the "So Money" podcast, told Business Insider during a FB Live interview that she's already teaching her 2-and-a-half-year-old the concept of "delayed gratification."

"One way we do this is at the grocery store ... he wants to open up everything right away, he wants to grab the muffin and eat it right away or he wants to grab the yogurt and eat it right away," Torabi explained. "So we teach him that it has to go in the cart ... and we have a list, and he knows that we can't get everything in the store. I say no to a lot things — we don't need that, but we need this."

The concept of delayed gratification is something that, if practiced early in life, can help you steer clear of financial blunders like overspending or impulse buying as an adult.

Torabi said she even lets her young son hand over the cash for the groceries to the cashier. She says cash is better than a credit card because it physically represents an exchange of money — her son is able to give up something to get something in return.

"I don't know how much of this he's really getting … but my goal is just to show him that we have to make choices, we can't have everything right away, we have to pay before we leave and exchange," she said.

Torabi thinks we tend to "underestimate the ability for kids to really grasp some basic financial concepts" and that being mindful of our day-to-day behaviors regarding money, and heeding our child's curiosity, can be invaluable to their financial aptitude later in life.

"It can be a lot of fun, but it's work and it takes consciousness," she said. "And remember that your kids are watching so it's not just about sitting them down and giving them the lecture, but just being conscious of how you're behaving around them — they're picking it all up."

Watch more from Business Insider's Facebook LIVE with Farnoosh Torabi: